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“Cavendish had been the author of The Black Arts in 1967, a book which I still rate as one of the best general introductions to Western occultism.” OMG, they h
by Jun8 3y ago
“Cavendish had been the author of The Black Arts in 1967, a book which I still rate as one of the best general introductions to Western occultism.”
OMG, they had this book in our high school library and for some unknown reason I checked out and read it, interesting experience for a 15 year old! It was comprehensive and had excerpts from grimoires from Middle Ages on how to summon sprits. It had a strange green-black cover (https://www.chegg.com/textbooks/the-black-arts-40th-edition-9780399500350-0399500359 https://www.chegg.com/textbooks/the-black-arts-40th-edition-...).
Haven’t thought about it in nearly 40 years and I see it on HN! Chance? I think not.
- eru 3y agoWhen I hear of the Black Arts I think of the German 'Schwarze Kunst'. Despite what the literal translation might make you think, the German term does not refer to the occult. It relates to the art and craft of printing. 'Weiße Kunst', the white arts, apparently refers to paper making.
- hef19898 3y ago'Schwarze Kunst' can also be used as synonym for magic and all kinds occult stuff. Maybe because printing was something people didn't really understand back then.
- eru 3y agoOr it was just a pun?
- garba_dlm 3y agobut here I was thinking it had something to do with "blacksmiths are loud" hence we should vanish them to the outskirts of the city cuz they're annoying to be nearby which spiraled into "black(smiths) go away" lol